


A Modest Proposal

by JackTheBard



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 06:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6646150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackTheBard/pseuds/JackTheBard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It involves getting down on one's knees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Modest Proposal

The box felt awkward in his hand.

It was hard plastic encased in black velvet. The cheap kind, like you would find in a fabric store, but that at least made it more authentic for what was encased inside.

Twenty four karat gold, curling around an intricate lattice of ruby, surrounded by minute diamonds. The diamonds were smattered scatteringly, almost haphazardly, but each side was a mirror image flipped turnways, the golden filigree curling just so it seemed like it would branch out along the wearer’s finger, enticing and locking in so much more than a promise.

He’d spent the better part of six months chipping and scraping away to ensure that he had enough money to spend on the ring and not be in debt. One of the smaller stones was enough for him to pay for a week of work, but he wanted something good, something bright. He wanted something memorable.

\ The roof was to be their meeting place. The same place that they had spent so much time so long ago, the same place that they had shared so many secrets, so many memories. He had told her the truth about admission here. She had told him the truth about fighting here. They had learned so much from one another.

He would be lying if he said that his eyes had not wandered once or twice during the course of their study together. Her lips were soft and full; her hair was the color of cherries set ablaze in flambé; her eyes seemed like chips of emerald ensconced in a marble statue. 

She was about as flawless as the diamond she deserved, and the gem itself should be as big as her heart.

But what he knew were two things. 1: He was too poor to afford anything aside the best that he could buy from a jewelry store in town. 2: There existed no gem that encapsulated her beauty so properly.

He breathed deep and looked out at the sky, horizon split into mountain ridges and endless space dotted by stars, when he heard the door open behind him. He turned around and gazed on her.

Flawless.

That was the only word to describe her. She wore a tight corset of brown leather inlaid with brass filigree, her shoulders bare. Her hair would cascade down around it in a crimson curtain were it not for the leather strap that tied it up just above the base of her skull. She stared at him and gestured to the small section of the roof. “What’s all this for? Are you trying to get some nostalgia out of me?” She spoke with a smile on her lips, indicating that she was more than happy to be there, that she was more than happy to be invited to their old space.

“Listen, I’ve been thinking,” he began, shuffling his feet. How unromantic. Here he was, about to confess his biggest truth, and he was kicking at the dust like a nervous schoolboy. “We’ve… been though a lot. To say the least. I think that there’s a lot more that we could do together.”

That soft smile turned into a grin, and her lips parted to reveal a set of teeth so perfectly white, so perfectly straight, that they resembled a set of limestone headstones in a cemetery. He almost fainted. “I think that goes without saying,” she said, moving a little bit closer. She always added a little more smirk to her lips and a little more sway to her hips whenever he was near. To be honest, he thought she exaggerated it, played it up whenever he was around. It was far from slutty; it didn’t make her seem like a harlot. It made her so much more desirable, since it was only noticeable to the people that looked closely, like himself.

Could one blame the man for catching wind of her affections even after she spoke them outright after so long?

Once she was within a few feet, he dropped down to his knees in a moment of panic so sudden that she thought there was something wrong with him.

“Listen…” he began, trying to search for the right words for her. He’d practiced this a hundred and one times on this very roof before she got up here. Hell, he’d even showed up an hour early for the specific purpose.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve loved me from the moment you rescued me from humiliation,” He began, casting aside the smooth words he selected earlier, instead focusing on the truth. “And I’m sorry that it took me so long to return the favor. I’ve been dumber than a sack of hammers around you, and I feel like it’s been because of you. I just don’t want to feel that way anymore.”

Were she a dumber woman, she would have thought this was a breakup. But his sense of supplication, being on his knees, and the way he fumbled in his pocket brought her hands up to her lips, covering her mouth excitedly even as she felt tears of joy well up in her eyes. Typical of her oblivious boyfriend, he didn’t notice her excitement and joy and instead continued along with the spiel he must have prepared.

“I love you,” he said, fishing the small box out of his pocket and holding it up to her, cracking it open so she could see the fantastic gold, diamond, and ruby band encased therein. “And I want to spend the rest of my life serving as a huntsman alongside you,” he told her.

“Pyrrha Nikos…” he said, biting his lip, misinterpreting the expression on her half-hidden face as fear and nervousness, “Will you allow me to be your husband?”

Pyrrha didn’t focus on the ring at all, instead looking at his face, nodding fervently behind her hands before they reached out and pulled him up to his feet with ease despite the fact that he seemed so unmoving from his position on his knees. She felt her lips moving, but no sound came out. After nodding vigorously for a moment, a motion that made Jaune smile widely, she managed to squeak out “Yes.” Jaune rose from his knees and she pulled him in for a hard, fervent kiss, completely ignoring the ring that he offered her.

“Jaune Arc, I would be proud to be your wife,” she told him before she pulled him in for another kiss, as if they were standing at the altar already.


End file.
